10 reasons why Ohio State has the upper hand

This Saturday Ohio State takes on _ichigan in what fans of college football just call “The Game.”

The Game. No trophies. No Oaken Buckets. No axes. None of that.

This is just two of the most storied programs in college football history going at it. The program with the most wins (_ichigan, about 900) versus the highest winning percentage over the last 100 years (your Ohio State Buckeyes, 72.4%).

Who has the advantage? On paper, it looks like Ohio State does.

Why?

1.The game is in C-bus. Ohio State has won the last 5 meetings on the bank of the Olentangy River and 6 of the previous 7.

2.Urban Meyer. The Pontiff has two national championships, along with multiple conference titles. The _ichigan coach, Brady Hoke has a 66-55 career record with no conference championships and has 5 winning seasons and 5 losing seasons as a head coach.

3.Braxton Miller. On Saturday, he will be the best player on the field when Ohio State is on offense. Sure, it’s a team game, but it all starts with the quarterback. Miller is terrific.

4.Ryan Shazier. On Saturday, he will be the best player on the field when Ohio State is on defense. He will be on the first team defense in the B1G and could merit defensive POY consideration. (Next year, barring injury, I believe he is a shoo-in for the award.)

5.2002. The national championship from 2002 will be honored during the game. That 14-0 team wiped away many of the bad memories from the John Cooper years and Wolverine killer Jim Tressel will be on hand as well.

6.A chance at history. The Buckeyes have the opportunity to do something special: complete the season undefeated. The Buckeyes do not have a postseason this year so this is their conference championship game, their bowl game and their rivalry game all rolled into one. They will be ready.

7.Improved defensive play. The Buckeyes have improved greatly as the season has progressed, especially after bottoming out in the narrow win against Indiana.

8._ichigan’s rushing defense. It has been porous, allowing over 150 yards per game. The Buckeyes offensive strength is in its ability to move the ball on the ground. They are second in the B1G in rushing offense and lead the conference (by eight!) in rushing TDs this season.

9.John Simon and the defensive line. Simon leads the B1G in sacks and is tied (along with teammate Shazier) for the conference lead in tackles for loss. Most football games are won and lost at the point of attack on the line of scrimmage. This could be the telling point of the game.

10. Breaking up passes. The Buckeyes have two players that do it very well: Bradley Roby, who leads the B1G in passes defended with 19, is one of them. The other guy is some no-name called Shazier (with 12)—Shazier, of note, is the only linebacker in the top 15 (the rest are all DBs). In fact, the Buckeyes have 5 of the top 12 players in the B1G on the leaderboard for passes defended.